Raconteur Theatre Company

My first love as a performer has always, and always will be, the stage. The connection that can be made between the actor and the audience has always been almost like a drug to me - intensely pleasurable, addictive beyond belief, and something that I’ll give up a lot to get. I had that opportunity just recently when I moonlighted away from Raconteur to appear in Rosebriar Shakespeare Company’s production of King Lear, which enjoyed its’ opening night last night.

But I’ve also always been in love with old-time radio plays. The Shadow, X-Minus One, Suspense - all of them have thrilled me for years. And the audio drama is beginning to see a resurgence thanks to podcasting.

I’ve started working with BrokenSea Audio, who originally came to my attention because of the audio dramas they produce for Feedback, the winner of the first season of the reality show Who Wants To Be a Superhero? Well, back in August, I auditioned for an original horror piece entitled Smile. And, to my great surprise, I was cast in it. I recorded my lines in September, and have tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to not think about it since then.

Today is Halloween. The last day of their “Season of Screams.” And Smile was posted this morning.

I am absolutely twitterpated. Have a listen, will you?

It’s not the same as live theatre. I have no idea who will listen to it, or when, and I’ll never get to gauge the audience reaction. I didn’t even have the opportunity to meet with my co-stars, some of whom I’ve never even spoken to via the telephone or e-mail. But I’m still enchanted by the experience, and the idea that I can carry one of my performances around in my iPod is just thrilling beyond belief.

-Aaron

So, when we started this little endeavor we call Raconteur Theatre, we made it a point that we didn’t want to become an incestuous, inbred theatre group. Of course there’d be a core group of people who we worked with, and we (the board) would be involved in some way with every production, but we wanted to make sure that A) we didn’t just use the same group of actors in show after show, and B) we didn’t lock ourselves in a theatrical box and only do work with Raconteur from here on out.

Well, Tricia put us on track for the first part of that equation with her casting for Ghosts (as she explains here). And the rest of us are working towards the rest of it as well. Jill auditioned for Bread & Circus Theatre Company, and will be in their February show (more on that later), and I recently took a role in Rosebriar Shakespeare’s production of King Lear.

What role, do you ask? Why, that of Edmund the Bastard. I tend to get cast as the “foil” character a lot. I’m not quite sure why, but that seems to be my lot in life. We’re only one week into rehearsals, but it’s going well so far. I look forward to moving away from contemporary drama and digging back into my Shakespearean roots (the first show I ever did in Columbus was Hamlet, with Rosebriar).

Of course, while being involved with Lear, I still have responsibilities to Raconteur. I’m the Props Designer for Ghosts, and I’ll be doing the program and running the house as well. It’s a fun and intense juggling job, but if we didn’t like challenges, why would be doing theatre?

-Aaron